Posted on 05/27/2021 7:26:38 AM PDT by Red Badger
While we all recognize bees for their importance in our food chain as pollinators, the clever creatures have a series of other talents, including math ability, face recognition, and even tool use.
A new video, originally posted on Twitter, shows a pair of bees apparently unscrewing the orange lid of a Fanta to reach the sugary liquid inside. In today's age of digital trickery, we have to be mindful that this could just be clever CGI; or, perhaps the bees really did work together, but simply toppled an already loosely perched bottle cap.
Either way, it's fun to think about whether bees would have the brains to pull off such a soda heist.
According to ViralHog, the video licensor that acquired the footage, the moment was caught in São Paulo, Brazil by a worker on their lunch break.
"I got a soda from a customer but soon the bees stole it," the person wrote in the video's caption.
VIDEO AT LINK......................
The smooth skill with which these two bees appear to twist the lid off a soda bottle has baffled many on the internet, with some wondering how such intelligence exists in what is obviously a very tiny brain.
What kind of intelligence exists in such a tiny brain, how do they know it has to be twisted anti clockwise. ?
— Jeffrey Marlowe (@JeffreyMarlowe) May 25, 2021 I wouldn't have believed it if I didn't see it and I'm still not sure I believe it! 🤔
— Brian B. (@brian163t) May 25, 2021 As we've come to learn in recent years, however, the size of an animal's noggin isn't everything. For one thing, tiny animals have far less body mass for brain cells to govern, so naturally they'll need smaller brains. In addition, the complexity of connections between neurons could be more important for cognitive performance.
In 1962, a decade before winning the Nobel Prize for research on bee communication, Karl von Frisch declared bumblebees too small-brained to think, putting their ingenious nature all down to hardwired instinct. Since then, the question of just how much a bee's brain can manage has repeatedly been tested.
Despite having a noggin the size of a grass seed, roughly 0.0002 percent the size of our own, bees have proved surprisingly intelligent in recent research. Not only can these insects learn from each other and use tools, they can also count to zero and perform basic mathematical equations.
The question is, how would a tiny seed-sized calculator turn its problem-solving skills to something as complex as removing a cap from a soda bottle?
Clearly, von Frisch's bias for large brains is still with us today. While the zoologist admitted bees could "accomplish astonishing intellectual feats", he claimed they did so only through instinct, failing "when suddenly faced with unfamiliar tasks".
Unscrewing the cap of a sugary drink is hardly a job bees evolved to tackle in nature, so von Frisch would be skeptical. It's possible the bees just got lucky this time, detecting a sweet reward that drove them to wander somewhat blindly against a slight resistance.
On the other hand, nature could yet surprise us. In the packed bee brain, for instance, a single nerve cell can sometimes contact up to 100,000 other cells.
This is amazing.
I forget where I read it, but I recently saw the question posed "can cells make decisions and change their minds". The article related to amoeba behavior.
It is really profound to contemplate the origins and commonality of thought inherent in all life.
— Hvaldimir (@Hvaldimir1) May 25, 2021 In recent research, bumblebees were trained to roll a ball into a goal for a reward. To score, the insects needed to copy each others' movements and learn from their mistakes, which they were able to do with startling ease.
"Such 'tool use' at one time was ascribed to humans alone, but then to primates, next to marine mammals, and later to birds," researchers wrote in 2017.
"Now we recognize that many species have the capacity to envision how a particular object might be used to achieve an end."
Even with their small circuitry of neurons, bees may well be capable of far more than we once thought. Next time you treat yourself to an outdoor lunch, you might want to keep an eye on your drink.
Ping!..................
How many bees does it take to screw in a light bulb?
(I guess it depends how much sugar is involved)
Lid was already unscrewed. The bees were just pushing, trying to get at the soda. They happened to both push the right way and the lid came off.
The video is fake news
The Bees did not unscrew the bottle cap. The bees lifted the cap off the bottle.
There is no evidence they intentionally worked together to remove the cap that was merely set down on the bottle
color me highly skeptical
the cap was 95% of the way unscrewed. There was a large gap and the bees could smell the sugar and wanted in. They were merely trying to wedge their way in just like if they were trying to pry apart pieces of bark or any other natural obstruction. To me, I would guess it’s just coincidental that they just happened to be on opposite sides of the cap and they just happened to pry it slightly to their right.
I know I know. I’m a Buzz kill.
/pun
Or maybe they were robotic micro-drones just made to look like bees.
;-)
The cap was just set on the rim and could have been flicked off by a dog or cat licking it. Bullshit
The cap was just set on the rim and could have been flicked off by a dog or cat licking it. Bullshit post.
As other posters have noted, the bees did not unscrew the cap. It was mostly unscrewed, and resting on the bottle. The bees lifted the cap.
There is nothing to indicate that the bees worked together intentionally, or that they didn’t. It’s possible that each bee was working independently, or that they were working together and communicating.
Still, understanding that the cap had to be lifted off shows intelligence. Bee intelligence. Not human intelligence.
We have many wild bees and other insects and animals that pollinate.........................
Smarter and more ambitious than your average democRAT.
There are many ways to deal with them, some type of poison is usually the preferred method. Their are two primary types of ant poisons. There are various types of “bait” that they take back to the nest that kills them but typically takes several days to a couple or weeks or longer. Then there are poisons that kill them instantly on contact and disrupt their supply lines back to the nest. Or you can use both types together... by destroying some supply lines to the nest with the more potent poisons, vacuuming them up, or doing a better job of removing what they are after by cleaning or sealing up what they are after it can encourage them to take the bait on their other supply lines.
It is interesting that if you follow the trail that they have formed to food or moisture that they are carrying back to their nest and you put “ant bait” in their path... the workers typically will ignore it for quite a while until the decision is somehow made to take it home as well.
Sometimes the workers will actually die along the way back to the nest after taking the bait, but then other workers will typically carry the dead ants off, because ants are cannibals who will eat both their friends or foes.
Then the bees fell in and drowned.
Correct. The honeybee (Italian, Carniolan, etc...) are an invasive species to North America.
Ants, carpenter bees, flies, gnats, wasps, etc.... pollenate pretty well. Just not as intensely like honey bees which will only work one nectar source collectively at one time.
Now if they can unhook a bra, that’s good science there.
Well, that’s really cute, Carly. Thanks for the lesson about brain weight and memories of cartoons.
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